Wireless communication.



C. D'. BABCOGK. WIRELESS COMMUNICATION. APPLICATION FILED SEPT.25, 1905.

Patented Aug. 3, 1909.

LZQQ $7 M 1 g UNITED sirAT-Es .PAT'ENT orrioia v CLIFFORD DUDLEY BABGOCK, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.', ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO UNITED WIRELESS TELEGRAPH COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.-, ACORPORATION OF MAIN-E.

wninmss COMMUNICATION.

ama

To all whom a may concern: 1

Be it knownthat I, Cmrr'on'n DUDLnx BABCOOK, aicitiz'en of the United States of principles of which are set forth in the fol-.'

specification and' accompanying lowing -which disclose the formof the drawings,

I invention which I now consider to be the -of platinum or other suitable metal, having best of the various forms in which the princ ples of the invention may be embodied.

Th s invention relates'to improvementsin the construction ofoscillation detectors, and the invention herein consists in the method I of construction, and the product thereof, which are hereinafter described and ex plained in the drawings, and claimed in the appended claims. p

The object of the invention is the production of an 'eflici'ent, durable and practicable liquid oscillation detector.

Of the drawings Figure 1 is an elevation,

partly in section, of the parts of. the invention, ready for the execution .of an action permanently combining them; Fig. 2 comprises two different elevation views of a detached portion of the part A shown in Fig.

1; Fig.3 is an elevation like that of Fig. 1,

but showing the result of an action executed in pursuance of this invention; and Fig. & is an enlarged view of the lower part of V l 1g. 3. 35'

ing. or scale drawings, but must beunder- These drawings are not intended as'workstood in the light of the specification.

This invention concerns a means for using a substantial and comparatively large and stout electrode of any suitable shape, properly limiting that part of its area which is exposed to the liquid. As to the other and larger electrode, I prefer a form having a considerable exposed area wherein for good results, the electrode may consist of a'plate a plane surface of considerable area, with dimensions of about an eighth of an inch. square and of any convenient thickness. It may have a much greater-or a less exposed area, but its exposed area should be greater Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed September 25, 1905. "Serial No. 279,883.

grees removed from the other,

- ample, a copper meter, although Patented Aug. 3', 1 909.

than that of the other electrode, in order to vbe commercially useful for long distance telegraphy. I

As distinguished from the use of an extremely fine electrode,.I prefer a comparatively lar e, stout, which will not be affected by static dissubstantial terminal,

charges, for use with this invention, which terminal, when properly covered with insulation, does not require to be adjusted to varying conditions, and can be readily handled without injury during manufacture and "use. Such a comparatively largeterininal or electrode is not fragile, or liable to destruction by handling, and is laterally supportedby the insulating covering so as to comprise a strong and durable device.

Fig. 1 shows a conducting part A which may be n. the form of awire, andmay be of platinum, a metal which can be sealed with glass. This conducting portion may be large, as compared with the NVollaston wire,

(about 'fifty times as large, or slightly less or much .more), such as two mils iii diameter or much larger or slightly smaller, although it should have at least a smaller area exposed to the liquid than the. other electrode. This wire, which may be half an inch long, or more, or less, as convenient, may 'be obtained by shearing or cutting itv o'if from a length of wire so that the part A has, as a result of the shearing, a V-edge 1, as shown in the two views in Fig.

2, one being from a view-point ninety deout tube of glass D, which comprises the in-' sulating covering for the lateral surface of the part A. The wall of the tube from which the part D is drawmmay be of the thickness of any common small glass tube, such as about sixteen mils, and the outalthough this side diameter maybe about a tenth of an inch. The part D may be made in any mannerwellknown to glass workers, either from such a tube, or in any other manner,

provided that thethinnest part or end of the drawn-out wall is of suflicient thinness.

When made from the tube, a part of the tube (the wall of the undrawn-out portion. This possible asin a flame.

i A to pass entirely as being 1 essentials.

outside diameter may vary considerably in practice, even with a'com'paratively invariable thickness of the wall of the drawn-out portion, and, as with'the other constructional features, is largely dependent upon the skill of the constructor in executing the detailed description hereinafter. But such variation is not important, although the inner diameter of the drawn-out. portion should be large enough to permit the part through it, so that the end surface of the part A will be substantially flush with the end of the jacket. The thickness of the wall 8 at the end of the drawnout portion will then be about the same as the diameter of the part A; and in general, although the part A may be considerbly thicker'than the said wall, or vice versa,- they are of the same general order of magnitude,

for the purposes of this invention. It will,

be seen from the above that the diameter of the opening in the smaller end 8 of the dra wnout tube may be many times larger than the diameter of the partA, audit is not necessary that "the tube be-a capillarytube. the'thinness of the wall (,ascompared with the ordinary The above dimensions are given as examples of satlsfactory practical conditions, and not the modeof drawing out best results follow the part'A which consists in drawing it out as quickly as possible while kept as hot as This results in the peculiar form shown. inthe drawings, which drawn-out portion, thus.

will be describedhereinafter. .The part, D will thus not only'be taperedjas a whole and have a tapering interior After being drawn smallest part of the removing the part D (Fig. 1) from the tube.

-As shown in Fig. l, the parts are assembled so that the end surface of' the part A i is flush with the end of the part D, the interior walls of the smaller end 8 .of the part D having been 1 the end 8 of the part D and the corresponding end of the inclosed part A, are inserted into the oxidizing part, or outer part of the .fusion of the electrode.

It is.

. provemen'ts. thickness of tubes) which is ofimportance, and not the, size of the opening-- I have found that. the

opening, but its wall of the part A face of the liquid electrolyte in a vessel.

first suitably cleansed. Then lower. portion of, a hydrogenfiame, which may be the flame of a Bunsen burner supplied from an illuminating-gas main. In

that flame the gas is heated to incandescence. Since the parts A. and D, consisting of glass and platinum respectively, have substantially the same coefiicient of expan sion, they will, by this heating,.be sealed together at their lower ends, thus leavin eX- posed only the minute end surface o the part A. This sealing may be effected in the case of the comparatively. stout electrode of this invention, although an-extremely fine electrode such as the Wollaston wire, or even wires of a much greater diameter, cannot'be sealed in glass on. account of the resulting The reason that it is possible -to construct the electrode-in this manner, in pursuance of this invention, is that the part A is made comparatively large, so that it will not be readily fused; while thetapered wall 8. of the drawn-out portion of the part I) is made comparatively thin, (with respect to the thickness of ordinary tubes), so that the little heat required to fuse it, for scaling to the part A, is not suflicient to fuse that metal part, which is stout as compared with the extremely fine terminals. The thin wall of the glass tube, and the stoutness of the electrode, as compared with extremely fine electrodes, each contributes to. the acctmplishment of the purpose of the invention.

I do not claim broadly the invention above described, but only the specific improvements thereon which will now be described, and .the specific features of the above description which are connected with such im- [n.executing the sealing operation, I observed-that sometimes afterthe operation, the lower end of the sealed tube would have substantially the same shape which it had before the sealing; and that at othertimes it assumed a form like or similar to that shown at 9 in Fig. 3, and in Fig. 4 on "a larger scale. The reason; for the formation of the globule on certain occasions, and not better in use in a detector.

.1 found that when it was not formed the de-' vice worked better when the lower half of a devicefl similar to Fig. 3,-but having no globule, was bent upwardly so that the end was directed toward thesur- This seemed to be due to the factthat the bubbles of liberated gas were free to rise up away from the end of the part A, whereas when that end pointed downward, the gas bubbles tended to remain at that end and impair the action ofthe device. But when the glass gl bule 9 was formed, the device on others, was at first. obscure, but I dethat when it was formed,

would operate satisfactorily even when its lower half wasnot bent upward, and the device would operate nobetter if its end were bent upwardly. It seemed that this might be due to the fact that the extreme thinness of the glass wall "at the lower end. of the globule, and the bulging shape of the globule above that thin wa'll, readily permitted the gas bubbles to exercise their tendency to rise,-and caused them to be deflected up away from the end ofthe part A. It is probable that the formation of t'he glo'bule d'raws upwardly some of the "glass forming the lower end of the wall,.so that that wall is even thinner than itwould be'in the cases 1 when no ig lobule is formed. The glass usuflow farther than,

' pursuanceof the 'exercisesofproper skill on the part of the 'constructor. The thickest part of the globule will besoinewhat above the exposed ;-end surface of'the rpart and the part of the lateral surface of the part A just above the end; surface below the, greater curvature of the globule,'.n1ay be covered with only av very thin :fil'm of 'glass, but this film will be. sufficient to 1nsu-' late the part. A from the liquid except as to the end surface, in pursuance of the general principles of the insulated electrode; 'Fur-' thermore, such 'thinfilm will usually partake more or 'less of the tapered form of the entire tapered part '9, and is distinguished from the'taper existing at 8 (Fig. 1) prior to the sealing operation, and subsequent to the drawing-out operation. This globular formation is the basis of the invention claimed herein. The globule 9 mayapp'roximate ex'teriorly more or less to'the form of a perfect lobe dependin upon varying conditions. The globul e is to be distinguished from the tapering wall of the glass tube caused by drawing ont. The globule is near the end of the electrode, while the latter tapered wall extendsthroughout the length of the drawn-out part of the tube. The structure and function of the globula'r formation having now been described, there will'now be disclosed in detail the method, discovered by me, of producing that. formation with reasonable cert-itude and uni formity', instead accidentally. In general it'm'ay 'beisaiol that in vpractice the tips of the small "ends- 0f the glass point and inclosecl wire are'a-pplied near the base of the bunsen flame, just above the upper edge of the burner, and while the parts are held in a substantially horizontal position, without being'mtwedexcept in 'a direction to and from' the 'fla-me- I have found that the :glo'bule cannot be produced wt all, orat least not without v great difficulty, inrlessthe wall off the end of the tube. ti-on is bestto observe the result, (in order tofd'eterrhine whether or not the operation I the small end of the drawn-out glass tube be as thin' as it is possible to maize it, by

drawing it out as quickly as possiblewhile kept as hotas possible in a flame. This'resuits in the form shown in the drawings,

wherein below the straight part of the tube 'Dothere is first an abrupt taper which exten-dsinto a gradual taper terminatingina fine point.

If the tube be drawn out too slowly or While not quite hot and-soft, its

thickness will be so great as to strongly militate against the chance of the formation of the globule. The less the thickness of the wall ofthe tube is, the more definite will be the tendency toward the formation of the globule. I have found furtherthat even when, the lower wall of thetube .is of the required tl1inness,"as described above, the globule will not be formed, or at least properly formed at t'herequisite place, under conditions 01?;6011111'161'0131 manufacture in large quantities, unlessthetips of the glass point and'inclosed wire be applied to ordipped inthe flame several successive times,

atleast twice, and usually as many as five to seven times; Each application should be very brief, in order to avoid entirely fusing After each applicahas proceeded sufficiently ,fa j) either visu' ally or by a quick tentative" test in a detect-or.

The respective applications, while permissibly' in -quick succession, are separated by a .many varying coriditionsyihcludihg the thinmess of t'he'drawn-outglass tube, and the more or less rough character of the. brokenvoff and thereof, it being unnecessary to exercise greatycare'in breaking the tubes apart after they have been drawn out. sence of the method ofiproducing the globul e under commercial conditions, is, in brief, to draw out the glass tube quickly while hotas in the flame, to' then insert the inner conducting pa'rtin the tube until its end is substantially flush withbthe ehd of the glass tube, and then t'o'seal 'the parts together to form the globi-ile by successive shortappli' cations to the flame, ofthe flush ends of the parts. I v

The manner of use of the invention hereof will be understood by those skilled in the art.

lio

advantages. The extreme degree'of thinness of the tip end -o f'.' the sealed glass tube,

of gas bubbles up away from the end of the electrode, which is consistent with the coy:

I The device hereof possesses the following ficient surface of glass left parallel with the exposed end surface of the wire, to act to retain gas bubbles; second, that a certain ex tent of flat surface of the endof the glass jacket"might be caused by the grinding'ofi' of the electrode, such grinding being advisable in the lack of the invention hereof. The

curvaturelof the globule guides away with certitude the gas bubbles, which,are 'per-' m'itted to be deflected by reason of the thinness of the end wall of the glass tube, which extreme thinness is due to the quick draw-- ing out of the tube and to the formation of the globule.

The method of-making my new electrode is advantageous in that by it a practicable and operative electrode can be produced with certitude, quickness, and at a reasonably small c'ost. The successive applications in the flame, obviate the desirability of grinding or filing off any roughnessof-surface or non-flush projections of the ends of the broken or cut off pointof the drawn-out tube and the end of the inclosed conductor, whereby in my device a sheared or cut end surface of the conductor is presented to the liquid as distinguished froma roughened surface or one produced by grinding or filing), whereby any' deleterious action on the conductor by the liquid is prevented. But'the successive applications in the flame, in pursuance of my invention, enable the parts to become, during the formation of the glass globule, substantially flush with each other, ,thus obviating the requirement of any subsequent grinding or filing of the ends of the parts.

I claim: l. The method of making an electrode for a liquid detector of wireless telegraphy oscil- "lations, which consists .in inserting a conductor into a glass tube having a thin wall, so that the end of the conductor is substantially flush with the end of the tube, and then heating the flush end of the tube while the conductor is' so inserted, to seal together the proximate lateral surfaces of the tube and conductor near to and next their flush end surfaces and cause a part of the glass constifiitingthe .wall of the extreme flush end .of the tube to be drawn away from the end while leaving covered with glass all the lateral surface of the conductor next its end,

the heating being effected repeatedly and successively whereby there is formed an enlarged curved portion of glass above the end of the tube, thus reducing the thickness of the extreme end wall of the tube.

2. The method of making an electrode for a liquid detector of wireless telegraphy oscillations, which consists in insertinga metallic conductor into a glass tube having a thin wall, so that the end of the conductor is substantially flush with the end of the .tube, and then sealing together the proximate lateral surface of the tube. and conductor'near to and next their flush end surfaces, by the application of heatthereto, the thickness of the wall of the flush end of the tube being sufliciently small to permit the heat used for sealing to cause a part of the I at one-extreme end, and a conductor inserted therein so that its end is substantially flush with the end of the jacket which has the extremely thin wall,. the proximate lateral surfaces of the jacket and conductor beingsealed together near to and next their ends,

leaving the end surface of the conductor exposed from the jacket; and the jackethaving an enlarged curved portionnext its extremely thin-end wall, the outer surface of which enlarged portion has a curvature extending outwardly and away from the extremely thin end wall of the jacket.

4:. An electrode for a liquid detector of wireless telegraphy oscillations, which'consists of a glassftube, and a conductor inserted therein, thewall-of one end of the tube beingstraight andof slight thickness, the straight wall continuing into an abrupt taper and the abrupt taper extending into a more gradual taper which terminates in an end having a wall of-less thickness than the wall of'the straight part of the tube, and having an opening for the end surface of the'conductor, the thickness of the extreme flush end wall-of the tube being extremely slight, the proximate, lateral surfaces of the tube and conductor being sealed together near to and next their ends, leaving the flush end surface of the conductor exposed from the end of the extremely thin wall of the tube; and the tube having an enlarged portion above its extremely thin end wall, a

cli'rvature extending outwardly and away flush with the end of the tube; and then 0 from the extremely thin end Wall of the sealing the parts together and forming a acket. I globule by successive short applications in -a 5. The method of making an electrode for flame, of'the said flush ends of said parts.- 5 a detector of wireless telegraphy oscillations or other feeble electrical impulses, which CLIFFORD DUDLEY BABCOGK' consists in inserting a conductor into a glass, Vvitnesses: tube havin an extremely thin Wall, so that PHILIP FARNSWORTH, the end 0 the conductor is substantially i M.' M. MAGRAE. 

